Lysol poisoning

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erichm20

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
651
Location
Jensen Beach, FL
On Thursday my wife sprayed a lot of lysol all over the furniture in the living room where the tank is because a guest's kid threw up all over the place... I didn't really think about it because, even though I could smell it when I came home, the tank looked fine. Then on Friday she called me and said the tank looked cloudy and the mushrooms were oozing and there were "spider webs" in the water... Yikes! :(. So I rushed home and did a 20 g WC and put in some carbon- I don't have a reactor so I put it in a media bag and stuck it between a baffle in the sump.

Then yesterday it still looked bad- water is still cloudy, mushrooms are totally shrivled, half the zoas are not opening, the frogspawn and hammer are thinner and not all the way opened, the favia looks pitiful and the gators lost to the canes....:banghead: So I did another 15 G change.

I did some research but there really isn't a whole lot about lysol except total tank crashes.... So on cloudy water I read that it could be because of a biological imbalance, with the beneficial bacteria and such. So I'm now thinking the lysol killed the BB which would explain the cloudy water but if that's the case then does the tank need to re-cycle? Will it just right itself over time? Could I add anything to move it along?

I got up this morning and it's still cloudy...

Fortunately the fish seem to be ok, no abnormal behavior... Water chemistry looks good, ammonia: 0; Nitrite: 0; Nitrate: 0; ph: 8.1; Phosphates: .10; CA: 400; dKH: 13; MG: 1300; SG: 1.026

If ALL the bacteria were dead wouldn't there be ammonia from the fish and dead bacteria with nothing to consume/convert it? Should I just keep doing water changes? I could really use some guidance any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.
 
If the water parameters are at zero then it is probably a chemical thats killing stuff and making the water cloudy, not bacteria. I think more water changes could help if theres something in the water that shouldnt be there.
 
I plan to do another 20 gallon water change today. Lost 1 peppermint shrimp. On a good note the LPS corals look better today but strangely the soft corals still look haggard. Maybe has something to do with them not having any sort of skeletal protection.
 
Is the top of your tank open, if not then I can't imagine that much got into your tank to cause such a reaction.
 
There is a hood. I thought the same thing originally but can't seem to think of anything else that could've happened. Just the day before the tank was clear and doing great everything has been thriving.

I also read of stories where even those little automatic air fresheners create problems over time.

Also I think bc there was so much sprayed at once enough came in through the top where I have openings for the fans on top of the led panels to get air.
 
I guess anything is possible.If I were you I'd continue to do water changes to dillute anything that may have gotten in there.
 
The white cloudiness is a bacterial bloom. The lysol apparently killed some of the bacteria, and now they are scrambling to maintain the bioload of the tank. I would say remove any bioload (feeding ect...), and run carbon until it disappears, with waterchanges and keep an eye on water parameters looking for a nitrogen cycle...
 
Although I don't think the cloudiness is a bacterial bloom, I do agree with Bill's assessment on the rest, and his thoughts on what to do. I suspect the cloudiness may be more relates to the surfacant in Lysol which will cause dissolved O2 in the water to form micro bubbles. If possible I would test for your dissolved O2 (perhaps your LFS has a tester you can borrow). Another issue could be the H2O2 in lysol, which would lower the pH, stressing the corals and causing some of the carbonates absorbed in the tank to go back into solution. As pH came back up, the excess carbonates would reprecipitate, causing some cloudiness.
In any case, I'd agree to keep with the carbon and WC to remove any biocide remaining.
 
Thats interesting. Thanks for the input. Whatever it is it's still not correcting itself, the water is still real cloudy. I tested it this morning and ammonia and nitrites are still 0 so I think if there was a disruption with the bacteria I would see a spike. Ph is 8.2. Fortunately nothing has died as of yet and the corals look better. Except for the frogspawn it was a little inflated and tentacles retracted this morning and the plain blue shrooms are all real small but ric and yuma look fine.

Fish are all acting the same way they always have so that's good too. I haven't been able to do a wc since Saturday so I'm gonna try to do a 30 gallon Change today and change out the carbon.
 
With the excess cloudiness, less light may be getting to the corals than they are used to, so they may be retracted.
 
Did another 15 g wc and changed out the carbon and filter sock and it was clear today, not crystal clear but a lot better. That's a relief I was worried at first I read some horror stories.
 
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